This week we hear how the Australian Government is failing its indigenous women, we journey through the solar system on a musical voyage of celestial might, and find ourselves struck by the fast pace and pause of Pablo Neruda’s words.

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Half the world menstruates, yet the natural monthly process is still deemed taboo—dirty and not to be discussed, with sanitary items the subject of high taxes in many countries. It is 2017 and such overpriced tampons are one reason indigenous girls in Australia are missing school during their periods. In this article for The Guardian, Celeste Liddle writes, “The government sees fit to continue taxing these items, treating them as luxuries rather than necessities and effectively penalizing those who dare to bleed. Combine capitalist gain and government greed with service provision in remote areas, and suddenly women and girls are expected to pay $10 per packet for the privilege of menstruating.”

In 2011 Muziekgebouw Eindhoven in the Netherlands commissioned a new work from composer Nico Muhly. With the help of the National’s Bryce Dessner, Sufjan Stevens and James McAllister, Planetarium was born. The 76-minute, 17-track album is a celestial project that thematically explores our solar system; mercurial sounds and black holes, the Kuiper belt, the Sun and the Moon and more. Listen here.

In County Limerick, on the south-western coast of Ireland, lies the 700-year-old Glin Castle. NOWNESS takes us on a trip through the wild green estate by the sea with the matriarchal family who have kept it alive. Meet the FitzGeralds.

For 36 years Lucinda Chambers worked at British Vogue and for 25 of those she was the magazine’s fashion director. Then she was fired. In this article published by Vestoj—and since taken down due to the ‘sensitive content’—she gets candid on the reality of the fashion world: “If you want good results, you have to support people. You don’t get the best out of anyone by making them feel insecure or nervous. Ultimately, that way of treating people is only about control. If you make someone feel nervous, you’ve got them. But in my view, you’ve got them in the wrong way. You’ve got them in a state of anxiety.”

Pablo Neruda was a communist who believed in peace, and was persecuted and exiled because of it. The Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet always wrote in green, which he called the color of hope. Read two of his startlingly sparse, but beautiful poems—Melancholy Inside Families and Friends on the Road—first published in the 1966 edition of the Paris Review.

Thanks for reading! We hope our links inspire you and give you a small window into what the FvF office is enjoying this week.

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